From the Ashes
by Iris Kane
Summary: A continuation of episode 5x18, "Spark of Life". As Tara Matthews wakes up and recovers from her severe injuries the aftermath of her ordeal comes to light, as the reality of her situation and her husband's arrest and impending trial set in she finds an unexpected ally.
1. Chapter 1

**From the Ashes**

 **Chapter 1**

The nurse was the first to notice.

Immediately, she ran for the attending doctor in the Las Vegas hospital-Tara Matthews-miraculously-was awake.

The doctor's stood by his attending nurse looking in on the burn patient, he shook his head.

"It's a miracle," he said, "a true miracle, it's a wonder the baby survived all that."

The nurse looked up at him with a quizzical expression.

"Should I notify the LVPD?" She inquired. "CSI Sidel may want an update."

The doctor nodded absently as he stepped towards the door to attend to his patient.

"Yes," he replied, "do that." The doctor replied as he disappeared inside the isolated room in the ISU.

Meanwhile the nurse turned on her heel and walked back towards the nurse's station, it seemed she had a few phone calls to make. Tara Matthews had a long road ahead of her, but she wasn't sure if the news about the woman's husband would make the situation better or worse, it was none of her affair however, so for the time being she decided to let it be.

As soon as she had a free moment at the nurse's station the nurse began to punch out the number for the crime lab. After a few minutes a cheerful voice answered.

"Las Vegas Crime Lab, how may I direct your call?"

"I'd like to speak to CSI Sidel please?"

"A few minutes later another woman's voice came on the line.

"Sidel." Came the short clipped response.

"Hello, this is Nurse Callie at Las Vegas General, I'm reporting on that burn victim you brought in a few weeks ago."

The voice on the other end was tentative.

"Yes? How is she?" The nurse could almost hear the unspoken question in the other woman's voice, "is she alive?"

"Miraculously she's awake, although we're not sure the extent of her overall condition. I should have a full report back from the doctor soon."

"Has anyone told her…" Sara Sidel's question hung in the air.

"No, I'm afraid not." The nurse replied, "Best wait until her condition stabilizes before we give her any unexpected news."

"Can I come and see her?" Sara asked. "Maybe it's best if she hears the news about her husband and the pregnancy from me."

"Perhaps…" The nurse replied cautiously. "Let me talk to her doctor and I'll call you back."

It was probably some of the best news she had gotten all week. Sara was still smiling as she headed for Grissom's office. She couldn't wait to tell him and the rest of the CSI's that had worked on the Matthews case, but the future of Tara Matthews and her unborn child remain to be seen.

…

 **Not sure how long this story is going to be it may be 3 chapters or it may be 10 or 12, but I thought it would be an interesting thing to write since it was never explained within the episode what happened to the character.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 _Beep, beep, beep._

It was the first sound Tara heard when she opened her eyes. At first, she had no idea where she was or how she had even gotten there. Her next conscious thought was how tight and sore her skin felt, even her throat felt raw and sore, like she had a very bad case of strep.

Tara tried to remember what it happened prior to her current circumstances. She remembered yelling at Neil, she remembered trying to save Dani (trying, and failing, she corrected) she remembered the vodka and the lighter…

Then nothing.

She tried to get her eyes to focus but everything was blurry as if she was looking at stuff underwater or through a camera that wouldn't focus. She could make out a man's figure but that was about it.

"Neil…?" She whispered, trying to form his name.

"Well looks like you've proven everybody wrong Mrs. Matthews," a male voice said, a doctor, not her husband.

"Don't try to talk." The nurse interjected as she opened her mouth again, intent on asking another question, but even that was difficult. "There was a lot of damage and I'm sorry, but we had to amputate a few fingers."

Tara looked down at her right hand to find a bandage, most of her fingers were gone.

She wanted to cry wondering how had she let things get so out of control? She had a lot of questions, but if the doctors and nurses have their way she had no way to communicate. Seeing the questions on her face the nurse left the room and returned a few minutes later with a dry erase board.

"Here," she said, "maybe this will help."

Tara tried to take the marker she was offered, she would have to write with her other hand but most of her body was so thoroughly wrapped in bandages she had little dexterity. After a few minutes, she only shook her head, or tried to considering she was incased in splints and bandages from head to toe.

"I know you have a lot of questions," the nurse said gently, "maybe I have someone who can help."

Sara's mind was spinning as she walked down in the direction of the burn unit. She had taken time off a recent case to go visit this former victim because she had so many unanswered questions. It made Sara's mind and heart hurt when she thought about it, she wasn't even sure how she would provide the answers.

Finally, the nurse she had spoken to earlier led her to the room where Tara Matthews was slowly recuperating. When Sara looked into the room it looked the same as the last time she had been there with one difference, the occupant was awake. Once she was admitted Sarah gently knocked on the door frame of the room.

"Hello Tara, my name is Sara Sidel… From the Las Vegas Crime Lab. They tell me you have a lot of questions."

Tara blinked slowly, at this point it was the only way she could communicate.

She formed the words slowly, as carefully as she could without actually speaking.

"Where is my husband?"

"He's in custody, he admitted to the murders."

Tara took in this information, from what she could remember it made sense she remembered him bursting into his best friend's bedroom with a gun.

Sara slowly walked over to the bedside and sat down in a nearby chair. She looked like she was going to take Tara's hand, but seem to think better of it.

"Tara… There's something else you should know… You're pregnant."

Tara blinked several times, the action, again seeming to take great effort. She didn't know if it was the amounts of drugs that were pumping through her system or the actual words of what the other woman was saying to her. She would have given anything at that moment to be able to speak.

She could only form one word.

"How?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It was on the tip of Sara's tongue to say she didn't know, she had no idea how the baby had survived when Tara had been so badly burned. For the moment she had no answer for the other woman.

"I don't know." She finally said softly, "just you hang in there, okay?"

For now, it was all Tara could do.

One day blurred into another, doctors in and out of the ICU, still more doctors checking her burns and another set checking on the baby, which was difficult to do given her present condition. At some point, she stopped caring what happened to Neil, she couldn't be worried about him right now she had to take care of herself and her unborn child. She didn't even know who the father was, whether it was her husband or his best friend.

 **5 months later**

 **Las Vegas Crime Lab**

"They want to test for paternity now?" Sara asked Grissom when he had unexpectedly poked his head into the room where the CSIs discussed current, previous and past cases.

Her boss shrugged.

"Why not?" He quipped, "she's far enough along by now, they can hope to get some DNA from the fetus…"

"Do they want to test from our lab?"

"One would assume so." Grissom replied.

The results were on Grissom's desk by the end of the shift. He only studied them thoughtfully, his mind and heart going out to the young woman who was still in the burn unit, miraculously, still pregnant. The stupid things humans did that often ended in murder… He would never understand it.

She had been undergoing numerous surgeries for months, mostly skin grafts to repair major damage. The tissues tissue expanders had been making her feel like a blimp and her growing pregnancy was only adding to that. She got a little bit better every day and knew she would be in the hospital for months to come after the surgeries there would be therapy and she would have to learn to do simple tasks again if only to take care of the baby and herself. Tara found if she kept the baby in mind the future seemed a little less daunting because she had someone else to think about and eventually care for. If she had gotten her heart's desire then it was all worth it.

Slowly Tara began to heal. They would be scarring of course (the doctors had told her this numerous times) but she wasn't sure how she would deal with it all, her missing fingers, the baby, and everything else. She would be raising this child (regardless of who the father was) as a single parent for the foreseeable future. Things were better what she was able to talk, as the pain lessened, although it wasn't by any means over, Tara began making some major decisions. She decided after her suicide attempt she needed help both for her depression so while she healed Tara had been seeing a therapist, one who came to her room twice a week. It wouldn't erase everything that had happened but at least it was a step forward. She had to begin to heal, both physically and emotionally.

 **This is mostly a filler chapter, explaining what happens to Tara between chapters 2 and 4. There were only be a few more chapters going up through the birth of the baby.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The recovery was hard, as Tara knew it would be, but every day she was encouraged and even a small step, such as getting out of bed for the first time was a small step forward. By the time she was 6 months pregnant, (carefully monitored by an OB/GYN who made regular trips down to the burn unit) she was in what promised to be a long stint in physical and occupational therapy because she essentially had to "relearn" how to do everything.

The CSI, Sara Sidel was a frequent visitor. When she wasn't out on a case she occasionally stopped by to see how Tara was doing. Tara, when she was up to it, asked how the impending trial was going. While Sara couldn't discuss the exact details she kept Tara posted, even though by now Tara really didn't care what happened to Neil… She would probably never see him again, if she saw him at all.

"If everything comes together the way we want it to," Sara told her, "we should go to trial by next year probably sometime in the spring, but that's not for sure yet."

Tara nodded slowly, thanked Sara, and looked towards the door of her room. She had been relocated to a different room on the burn unit since she was at this point no longer in critical condition. Her condition, although terrible had stabilized in the past few months, but that didn't mean she was out of the woods yet. In the doorway of her room stood a nurse with a wheelchair.

"Time for therapy, Mrs. Matthews." The nurse said cheerfully. "I'll make sure you're back in enough time for lunch and that you get a nap before OT this afternoon."

With the help of a couple of nurses Tara maneuvered into the wheelchair. Even the simple act of just sitting down was difficult. Every part of her still felt tight and sore despite the fact she had been getting skin grafts for months, her scarring had decreased somewhat, if only slightly. her scarring

Finally Sara rose from her place next to the bed.

"Well I better get going, they are going to want me back at the lab. It's a wonder I haven't gotten paged before now." She went to make her leave.

Tara gritted her teeth.

If she thought walking was hard because of her injuries, it was even harder trying to do it and be 6 months pregnant. She was pretty much in a sling with a therapist walking behind her, the slaying supporting most of her weight including that of the still growing baby. She worried about the baby sometimes, wondering how much it had suffered in her suicide attempt, but then she remembered it was, in fact, alive and for that she was grateful.

As she struggled to put one foot in front of the other (she was still too bandage to wear regular shoes and was still wearing the loose-fitting socks the hospital provided) she glanced at herself in the mirror. Tara could barely recognize her own face, the entire suicide attempt had left her somewhat disfigured her face still red and blotchy despite the grafts, the entire incident had given her a somewhat ""lopsided" look.

An entire trip from one end of the parallel bars to the other had left Tara exhausted, and she was grateful when she could finally sit back down in the wheelchair on the cushion the therapist had waiting for her.

"You're getting there." The other woman, a rosy cheeked blonde in her early thirties with a ready smile dressed in the hospital appropriate scrubs, assured her.

"Doesn't feel like it." Tara grumbled, "You try doing this, never mind my injuries, at 6 months pregnant."

To her surprise the therapist laughed.

"No, I can't imagine that's easy; the baby is still a miracle by anyone's standards. If it makes you feel any better you sound like any other pregnant woman."

Despite everything, and the fact that her reflection still made her uneasy, Tara managed a smile.

…

 **A large portion of this chapter is based off my experiences with therapy as I have had physical therapy most of my life. When you have had surgery or any sort of physical injury walking on the parallel bars is a lot harder than it looks**.

 **Last chapter coming sometime next week, last chapter will cover the birth of the baby. I may extend the story further than 5 chapters but right now I am writing the story how it is coming to me which is a series of small scenes.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The news was delivered in early February, late one night when Sara was only thinking of getting home and getting some much needed rest. After the most recent case a rape, murder, suicide with multiple victims, she was looking forward to going home without pulling a double shift.

Grissom paused in the doorway to the lab as she was on her way out in the two of them nearly bumped into each other.

"You headed home Sara?" Grissom asked.

She nodded.

"You should know, Tara Matthews delivered her baby today."

Sara shook her head.

"After all this time… That little one really is a miracle."

Grissom nodded somberly.

"Indeed."

It was early in the morning of February 9 when everything began. At first, she wasn't even sure she was in labor because her body, despite being off the morphine for months still felt sore and unnatural, like her own body was foreign to her.

As soon as one of the nurses had discovered her water had broken she was moved to the labor and delivery floor where the doctors and nurses flitted about wondering what to do with the burn victim who was pregnant and in labor who no one had expected to survive.

Tara supposed her delivery progressed as normally as possible, the hardest part was probably pushing as it still caused her a good deal of pain because of a few areas of unyielding skin, but she did her best; thinking of the baby she was about to bring into the world. In the last few months her hair had started to grow back although she was far from where she had been prior to the accident. She still had many months of physical therapy left and it was hard to say when she would actually be released, at the moment the doctors were saying in another 4 months.

Finally the baby made its appearance. No one had told her whether it's a boy or girl, she hadn't wanted to know there was enough going on in her life as of late and that was a minor detail. Finally, the doctor, the serene looking bespeckled woman she had gotten to know over the past 9 months looked up at her and smiled.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Matthews, it's a beautiful baby girl."

Under normal circumstances they would've put the baby on her, but given the fragile state of her body she could only take additional pressure for so long so they took the baby away and cleaned her up the nurse finally coming back holding the baby wrapped in a blanket for her to see.

"Does she have a name?" The nurse asked gently.

"I don't know." Tara responded, "I never really thought about it, I didn't even know I was pregnant."

Tara studied the infant more closely. She had healthy pink skin and a thatch of dark hair. At this point Tara didn't even know who the father was since both her husband and her lover had had dark hair. At this moment however, that didn't matter.

Tara said the first name that came to her mind. A new name, a different name, but a name nonetheless, after everything she had been through- after everything _they-_ had been through it seemed fitting.

"Emery. Emery Phoenix Matthews."

"What a beautiful and unique name." The nurse murmured, "What does it mean?" She frowned slightly, and Tara could see her apparent confusion at Tara's choice of a name.

"Emery for embers-and Phoenix because she was born out of fire and survived."

The next day after her shift had ended Sara stopped by the hospital. She found Tara and her new baby on the postpartum floor and when she walked into the room Tara was doing her best to smile.

"Heard you had your baby." Sara said with a smile as she approached the bed and the incubator in which the infant was sleeping.

"Yes." Tara answered, her eyes smiled. Tara reached a finger towards the baby and gently stroked her cheek. "Her name is Emery, Emery Phoenix."

"That's a beautiful name." Sara murmured. Without asking she knew why Tara had added Phoenix… A phoenix dies but they are born again from the ashes, clearly something Tara and her new daughter could relate to.

Sara was still smiling when she left the hospital. She couldn't wait to give Grissom the details clearly he would have some philosophical quote for her regarding a phoenix. She would tell him because she knew he would find it intriguing. She found herself smiling again, but what didn't Grissom find intriguing.


End file.
